Big Boy "Cars" Bed

Parker's sleep has been completely out of whack since we got back from visiting family for Christmas. We were away from home for 6 days, 5 nights and he slept in 3 different places. He very much thrives on his schedule so being away for so long and sleeping in so many different places really threw him for a loop. Before we left for Christmas our routine was, read some books with him, he'd help turn out the light, we'd pray with him, give him hugs and kisses and put him into his crib to sleep. He'd talk happily to himself for about 5-10 minutes and he'd be out like a light and we wouldn't hear a thing until 10 1/2-12 hours later. Now that we are back, he has only been going to sleep if we sit in the room with him until he falls asleep. If he wakes up and sees us leaving the room, he screams the most blood curdling scream and doesn't stop until we come back in the room to him! We tried letting him cry for 20 minutes intervals, going back in and laying him back down and he was literally awake until 2 in the morning!! He was also waking up SEVERAL times per night. It was seriously about every 2-3 hours!! Anyway, due to the extreme upset in his schedule it was suggested to us that this might be a good time to introduce the toddler bed. He slept really well in bed with James and I so we thought we might as well give it a try. We did some reading in "What to Expect the Toddler Years" and they suggested getting a book about switching to a toddler bed and personalizing it with your child's name. We did that and read it for a few days before bed and talked to him about making the transition. I know it sounds crazy to take a time when he really needs things to be back to normal to introduce something like this. Our thinking was that his schedule was already totally messed up, we were planning on switching him to a toddler bed when he turns 2 (Feb. 25th) anyway, so why spend this month trying to get him to sleep in his crib again to just turn around and have to try to get him to sleep in a toddler bed...

We got him a "Cars" toddler bed that uses his crib mattress. I wish I had taken a video of him when he first saw it all put together! He LOVED sitting, laying and throwing his stuffed animals "over the board" (which is "Parkese" for "overboard"), of the bed. How is he doing with the big boy bed you may be wondering...he's doing great! No, the sleep situation hasn't really improved yet from the messed up schedule due to traveling but it hasn't gotten any worse. He goes to sleep in it just as well as he did his crib and has slept just as long in it. I'm so glad it didn't make the sleep situation worse and I'm hoping and praying it gets better soon! James and I are SOOO tired! I'll try to get some pictures soon of Parker in his big boy bed...he's sleeping right now so I don't DARE risk waking him up just to get a picture (unless one of you wants to come sit with him when he randomly wakes up SCREAMING for mommy and daddy) *sigh*